CA Worker Cooperative Policy Feedback Form

A coalition of cooperative members, cooperative developers, and legal experts are exploring ways to create a more inclusive coop statute (or legal entity) in California that will augment worker coop organizing and build coop friendly policies. We are working on the creation of this new model because the Consumer Cooperative Corporation statute:

- prohibits worker cooperatives from identifying themselves as cooperatives unless they are incorporated as a consumer cooperative corporation;

- status as a corporate entity creates a presumption in California that there is an employment relationship between the cooperative and its worker-members;

- requires that board meetings be noticed in writing no less than 10 days prior to the meeting date, slowing down decision-making for small to medium size coops.

The Worker Cooperative Statute Coalition believes that members of worker cooperatives, worker coop developers, and worker cooperative supporters should define what a worker cooperative is, and let that shape the new legal form. That is why we need your ideas, insights, and opinions!

The working group involves members from the Green Collar Communities Clinic, The Sustainable Economies Law Center, Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives, The US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, the California Center for Cooperative Development, the Arizmendi Development and Support Collective, business owners, and community members. The working group is looking for feedback from more members of worker cooperatives, the labor, social, and economic justice communities, and cooperative supporters. To date, the Coalition has been identifying what provisions should and should not be allowed in the statute.

Please take a few minutes to fill out our questionnaire on the following pages.